Right vs. Left

Well it’s been another four years. Time to divide again. Whether you like it or not, most of American society is divided within the political realm. Sure we have the Greens and the Libertarians and others, but statistically speaking voter turnout for the two major parties (Democrats and Republicans) has always far surpassed that of the third parties for a long time. Though the terms Democrat and Republican stood for very different left-right beliefs at the time of their conception, today we can firmly say that Democrats lie on the left and Republicans lie on the right of the political thought. But what exactly does that mean?

The left-right political spectrum has been a common way of expressing political positions and ideologies for many years. As in France, the right can be said to be ‘the party of order’ while the left can be called ‘the party of movement’. It’s the eternal struggle that human civilizations must face through time – should we do things based on previous thought or new ones, should we remain or should we change? Of course depending on the current ‘reign’ of office, change can be an operative word depending the opponent.

As we shall see in the upcoming weeks, these candidates will represent their parties, though it’s not to say that they will always stick with the pack. They are individuals with their own opinions after all. This infographic merely serves as a map of sorts to give an overall conceptualization of the left-right spectrum so that we can see where these two presidential candidates are coming from, and the values of their political leanings.